Sensex up 350 pts on Rajan, Yellen comments

Gains were lead by financials and index heavyweights

Markets continue to edge higher in early noon trades led by financials and index heavyweights.

At 1145 hrs, the Sensex was up 354 points at 20,548 and the Nifty gained 105 points to trade at 6,094.Earlier in the day, Nifty had briefly crossed the 6,100 mark.

The improvement in investor sentiment came about on account of stimulus-supportive comments from nominee for Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen and after Reserve Bank of India's governor Raghuram Rajan stepped in to steady frayed nerves and said there were no fundamental reasons for weakening of the currency which boosted optimism.

Buying was visible in the broader markets too with both the mid and smallcap indices gaining 1.3% each, which was tad lower than the gains seen on the Sensex, up 1.7%.

All the sectoral indices were in the green with gains of atleast 0.4%.

Banking index up 3% was the top index gainer followed by Capital Goods, Auto, Realty and Metal indices up 2-3%.

Power, Oil & Gas, Consumer Durables and PSU indices added 1-1.8%.

Teck, FMCG, IT and Health Care indices were marginally higher with gains between 0.4-0.8%.

 The only losers among the Sensex-30 were Coal India, TCS and CIpla down 0.4-3%.

Bank shares firmed up after RBI governor Raghuram Rajan on Wednesday stepped in to steady frayed nerves and said there were no fundamental reasons for weakening of the rupee.

In the banking pack, ICICI Bank was up 5%, HDFC Bank surged 1.9%, and HDFC was up 1.3% while SBI gained 1.6%.

All the major auto stocks -Tata Motors, Mahindra & Mahindra, Hero MotoCorp, Maruti Suzuki and Bajaj Auto gained 1-5%.

From the metal space, Tata Steel, Hindalco, Jindal Steel and Sesa Sterlite up 2-3.5% wer e the major gainers.

L&T, Bharti Airtel, Tata Power,BHEL were the other notable gainers.

Market breadth was positive on the BSE. 1,308 stocks advanced while 694 stocks declined.